Hoglo looks like a garden with a few hedgehogs hiding in it, and that is exactly what it is: your job is to work out where each hedgehog belongs. There is no luck and no timer pressing you. Every grid has exactly one solution, and it can always be found by logic.
The three rules
- Place exactly one hedgehog in every row.
- Place exactly one hedgehog in every column.
- Place exactly one hedgehog in every coloured zone.
There is one more rule that does most of the work: two hedgehogs may never touch, not even diagonally. Hedgehogs are shy, and they need a little space around them.
Reading the grid
The grid is cut into coloured zones of different shapes. A 5×5 grid has five zones, a 9×9 grid has nine. Because the number of rows, columns and zones always match the size of the grid, every row, column and zone ends up with a single hedgehog.
Placing hedgehogs and crosses
Double-tap a cell to place a hedgehog. Tap, or drag across several cells, to mark crosses where a hedgehog cannot be. Crosses are your notes: the more of them you leave, the easier the next step becomes. Prefer a single tap to place a hedgehog? You can switch that in the settings.
Your first moves
- Find the smallest zone. With fewer cells, there are fewer places its hedgehog can be.
- When a hedgehog is certain, place it, then cross out all its neighbours, plus the rest of its row, column and zone.
- Look again. Each cross you add makes another cell certain.
A worked example
Imagine a small grid where a coloured zone is made of just two cells, one above the other in the same column. Because every column needs exactly one hedgehog, and this zone also needs one, the hedgehog of that column must be in the zone. That means every other cell of that column is impossible: you can cross them all out without placing anything yet. One simple observation, and half a column disappears.
Now imagine a zone with a single cell. There is no choice: that is where its hedgehog lives. Place it, cross the eight cells around it, and cross the rest of its row, column and zone. These two reasonings, “locked in a line” and “only one place left”, solve most of the early levels.
Common first-time mistakes
- Forgetting the diagonals. Hedgehogs cannot touch corner to corner either. A hedgehog placed diagonally next to another is always wrong.
- Placing a hedgehog “to see what happens”. Because every grid has exactly one solution, a lucky guess teaches you nothing, and a wrong one can mislead the rest of your reasoning.
- Skipping the crosses. Crosses feel like extra work, but they are your memory. The more you mark, the more cells become obvious.
- Looking only at colours. Rows and columns are just as strong as zones. Count what is left in each of them too.
Daily challenge, lives and hints
Every day there is a new daily challenge, the same grid for everyone, with a streak counter that grows each day you finish it. You have three lives for mistakes, and you can undo your last move. When you are stuck, a few free hints are available every day, and finishing a grid without a single mistake earns a bonus hint. Use them to learn: after a hint, ask yourself why that cell was the right one.
Playing comfortably
Hoglo comes with a colour-blind aid that adds a pattern and a letter to each zone, light and dark modes, two colour themes, and support for screen readers. If double-tapping to place a hedgehog does not suit you, you can switch to a single tap in the settings.
Ready to try? Hoglo starts with small grids and offers a short interactive guide for your first game, so you can learn by playing.